Chapter 452: Anger, love and worry are interconnected
*Bing-Bong*
The following is a truncated summary of the past few chapters as told from the perspective of Daria Nerisa-Zhen, aka, Zhen Liu’s mother.
As such, no quotation marks will be used as to indicate this is a single person’s narration, however, {} will be used to indicate interjection from Zhen Liu’s father Zhen Yan.
We now return to your regularly schedule chapter.
…
|See? Was it so bad to stick to the script?|
Still find it weird you have me make these PSAs in your chapters.
|Its to help the readers adjust their mind’s eye to this stuff. Probably won’t have these blurbs in the comic adaptation.|
We’re getting one of those?
|Hell if I know.|
*Bing-Bong*
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After you three got knocked out by Grand Fisher’s weird attack, that swordfish got the bright idea to attack everyone on the ship at once.
{Uh, why?}
When father-in-law saw you guys getting injured, he got really angry and started to increase the intensity of his attacks and aether output.
If we had to hazard a guess, Grand Fisher must have assumed that the more injured family members that were present on the battlefield, the harder father-in-law would have fought him.
{“Glory hounds,” Zhen Long muttered under his breath, “I hate dealing with opponents like those the most.}
However, out of absolutely nowhere, a strange horned man flew in and clocked Grand Fisher in his face, while the man’s disciples acted as interference for the attack.
After that… I’m not entirely sure.
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“That horned man then exchanged some pleasantries with father-in-law, apologizing for interfering, and then he and his disciples joined hands and dragged Grand Fisher’s ass at least several miles away from the ship,” Daria finished explaining.
“Not entirely sure what happened during that battle due to how far they were form an observable distance, but there were a lot of explosions and flashes of color during their battle and we’re alive, so….yeah.”
“That’s fair…so nobody on-board saw what happened during that battle?,” Zhen Lao asked.
“There were a few people, but nothing concrete,” Daria answered, “the only person who would have probably seen something would be father-in-law, and again, I don’t know where he is right now.”
“Huh…”
Zhen Yan, Zhen Long and Zhen Lao looked thoughtful as they digested all of the information they were provided about what had occured while they were unconcious.
Well, what little information they could go off of.
From the sounds of it, they would have to ask their father in person about who that weird horned guy was exactly or what happened after the battle was essentially stolen from him.
But that would be something that would have to be addressed later as a lot of people got injured and there was no way their father would just-
“Hello my sons and daughters.”
“Huh?”
“Father?”
“Patriarch!”
“Hold up…isn’t that Grand Fisher’s Harpoon?!”
“It is, but…father? What are you doing here?”
Patriarch Zhen Shi entered the room his three injured sons were recovering in, carrying in one of his hands the weird harpoon that belonged to arguably one of the most dangerous enemies they had ever faced up until this point.
The presence of the harpoon was a clear indication that Grand Fisher was defeated, but they were confused as to why their father had it.
Luckily, he was going to clear everything up for them.
“Well for starters, I’m here to check on my three foolhardy sons who tried to rush someone who even I had trouble dealing with,” Zhen Shi said in a lovingly mildly condescending tone.
“If you’re curious about how everyone else is doing by the way, the injuries range from surface level to at least multiple broken limbs. One of the grandchildren ended up slicing open their leg when they tried to kick a coral monsters.”
“Xiao Guo?”
“Yes.”
“You know honey, our boy seems to favor using kick techniques over other methods of fighting. Perhaps we should get him some greaves?,” Zhen-Ren Fa suggested without missing a beat.
“Ooh, that’s a good idea.”
“Anyways,” Zhen Yan interjected to get the conversation back on track, “father, why do you have Grand Fisher’s Harpoon? Did you manage to defeat him?”
Zhen Shi looked confused at the question for a moment, until he realized he forgot he was holding the aforementioned harpoon. Evidently with so much going on, he forgot to put away this latest gift of his.
“Ah, this? Well…no, unfortunately. This funky weapon was actually a gift.”
“A gift?,” Zhen Long asked,”from who?”
“From Xiao Liu’s master,” Zhen Shi answered while gesturing to Zhen Yan, Zhen Liu’s father.
“Ah, I see…wait, what?!”
The three elders looked mollified by the answer for a brief moment, until they realized their father just casually mentioned that the guy who gave him that harpoon was none other than the same guy who turned the clan’s crippled child into a super strong puppeteering powerhouse.
‘Wait…that means the horned guy was…what the fuck?’
It didn’t take long for them to connect the dots that the weird horned guy who showed up out of nowhere to save their skins, was also Zhen Liu’s mysterious master…which honestly explained a lot.
The three of them looked shocked at this revelation, with Zhen Yan looking the most shocked of the three.
Noticing his sons’ shocked expressions, Zhen Shi gave the three a small moment to try and get over it, before moving on.
“So…speaking of Zhen Liu, have any of you seen him this evening? I wanted to see if he could relay a message from me to his master. Give thanks, possibly give something back in gratitude?”
“Uhh…”
Due to the coral monsters and Grand Fisher essentially attacking the whole ship and crew all at once, everybody who could fight had to fight out in the open.
The three elders remembered seeing the other scions of the clan out there trying their damndest in fighting off these monsters, or at least trying to survive, but when they thought back to Zhen Liu, they couldn’t recall seeing him.
Which was weird, given that the boy’s super strength and unusual toughness should have made him a notable combatant on a battlefield such as this.
“I don’t recall seeing him fighting,” Zhen Long admitted, “but then again, I was focused on making sure those coral monsters couldn’t hurt anyone else.”
“Wait…I do remember seeing one of his aether puppets running around and pulling people out of danger or taking out some of those coral monsters with one hit, the one with the spring limbs,” Zhen-Mao Mei mentioned.
“Oh yeah…and he can talk and see through them…maybe he got injured by one of those monsters and decided to focus on just controlling his puppets from a safe place?,” Zhen Lao suggested.
“That would make sense…,” Daria agreed (while thinking of some other reason entirely).
“Hmmm. If that’s the case, then I can wait until morning or when he recovers before inquiring of his master,” Zhen Shi decided, “in the meantime, I will see if we remembered to bring any medicines that can help the others. Good evening, my children.”
“Good evening, patriarch.”
Evidently, they weren’t the only ones who thought of the possibility of Zhen Liu injuring himself while fighting those coral monsters.
A certain significant other also thought that maybe her boyfriend got injured during the fight and was now hiding away in order to recover while his “puppets” did all the fighting for him.
As such, that aforementioned significant other decided to check in on their beloved to make sure they were alright…only to discover what really happened during the fighting…
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[Ringmaster, in advance, I am very very sorry that I couldn’t tell a believable enough lie for the consort.]
[Honestly, I don’t think the maestro can blame you on that… she’s scary as fuck…]
[At least she’s not using a wok this time…]
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“Jin Fang?”
“Yes, darling?”
“How long are you going to keep pulling my cheeks for?”
“Until you realize what you did wrong.”
“Oh…okay…”
In this moment in time, Zhen Liu was currently being sat up in his cabin’s bed as his loving girlfriend, Jin Fang, was currently pulling his cheeks like he was made of taffy.
The reason being?
Well…
“So…do you know realize why I am mad at you and currently punishing you like this?”
“Because…I recklessly endangered my life again, fighting off another abomination without thinking about the consequences of my possible death?”
“And…”
“And…not informing you or bringing you along?”
“Good boy.”
Satisfied with the answer, Jin Fang immediately released Zhen Liu’s cheeks in order to give him a kiss on them.
While a small part of Zhen Liu found this emotional whiplash annoying, another bigger part of him found this adorable.
That being said though, Zhen Liu made himself a mental note about locking his bedroom doors from now on.
‘Two for two on bedroom invasion and punishment…I really hope rules of three doesn’t apply here,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself.
This was usually the point where Jin Fang had to leave in order to take care of some clan business, since she was still technically a servant, but she didn’t this time.
Instead, she kept sitting by Zhen Liu’s side and asked something that shocked Zhen Liu’s core.
“Can you teach me how to use [Chaos]?”
“Okay, see ya-wait…what?”
